Ferdinand shows a ruthless streak

RIO FERDINAND has no time for the wrist-wringing sympathisers of Arsenal.

In an example of the dog-eat-dog world of Premier League football, Ferdinand acknowledged Arsene Wenger’s players as a “great side”, but admitted he could not care less that they will finish empty-handed for a third successive season.

Even Sir Alex Ferguson dropped his normal ruthless, take-no-prisoners approach in following up his private consoling words to Wenger by publicly praising Arsenal’s quality after Manchester United had ended their title hopes in Sunday’s epic encounter at Old Trafford.

However Ferdinand’s no-nonsense rationale is that sympathy would be in short supply from the Emirates Stadium if United had found themselves in a similar position.

Instead, he prefers to concentrate on United’s drive for a Premier and Champions League Double rather than enter the debate on the Gunners’ stunning demise.

“This is no time for sentiment,” said Ferdinand. “That might sound harsh, but I’m sure they wouldn’t be worrying about us if we were in a position where we were not going to win a trophy.

“We only care about Manchester United. Arsenal are a great side and play fantastic football, but we just need to keep our eyes on ourselves and if we do that we will go a long way to being successful.

“There are still games we need to win, so we have to make sure we get the results that we need and hopefully by the end of the season we will be the team picking up something.”

Ferdinand says United owed the Gunners one after a last-gasp William Gallas goal had robbed them of the victory they felt they deserved at the Emirates in November. And last season Arsenal turned a 1-0 deficit on their home ground into a 2-1 victory with goals in the final seven minutes from Robin van Persie and Thierry Henry.

“In the past they have managed to peg us back every time we have gone ahead, but we managed to reverse that on Sunday,” he said. “And when we went into the lead we managed to hold on, so it was nice.

“It is a massive result to get three points against one of the teams vying for the title. We are at the stage of the season where it is crunch time, the trophies are being handed out soon and the three points against Arsenal take us a step closer to being able to pick up one of those trophies.

“Fingers crossed, we keep motoring on and playing the way we are doing.”

Ferdinand did concede that United rode their luck – never more so than when Edwin van der Sar made an instinctive save to prevent Ferdinand from deflecting Emmanuel Adebayor’s cross into his own net. That made up for the communication breakdown between the pair that gifted Adebayor his opener.

“It was a great strike – you couldn’t ask for much more than that from a centre-forward,” joked Ferdinand. “I got my feet messed up and Edwin was on hand to make a great save.

“For their goal, I could have headed the cross clear, but I heard someone shout, ‘Keeper’s’. As it turned out it wasn’t Edwin, and I let it go and it went to one of their players. You need little elements of luck and on Sunday we had that in a couple of periods.

“We didn’t play particularly well, but we probably created more opportunities than them. We knew at half-time we hadn’t played well but had created chances and that gave us confidence.

“We knew if we improved we’d get more chances and we did that. We were a bit more open than we’d have liked on Sunday, but we’re the team who came out with three points.”

Ferdinand also hailed United’s collective character that enabled them to stage their fightback, sparked by Cristiano Ronaldo’s twice-taken penalty before Owen Hargreaves’ free-kick winner.

“Getting the goal back so quickly was massive. Maybe we were a bit fortunate to get the penalty, but we showed the grit, confidence and resilience that has been a trademark of ours for the last couple of years,” he said.

“We did it at Tottenham and Middlesbrough to get draws and we did it on Sunday to take all three. Long may it continue.”

Hargreaves, meanwhile, is ready to challenge Ronaldo as United’s free-kick specialist after his second dead-ball goal of the season.

He said: “There was a bit of discussion with Cristiano when we got one in the first half. I asked him, ‘What do you think?’. He replied, ‘I think it is a bit too far for you’. And he was right. So he took that one.

“But the second one was a bit closer to goal – that’s more my distance. I feel comfortable from there and that is why I took it. I didn’t really ask him. But it was a great moment to see it fly in.

“The only goals I tend to get tend to be from free-kicks, so I’d be happy to chip in with a few more.”